Nicky Hutchinson
Dominic "Nicky" Hutchinson (1944-) was a British photographer, former anarchist, and one-time Labour Party political candidate from Newcastle upon Tyne. He ran for the Tyne Bridge West constituency in 1979, but he was defeated by Conservative Party candidate Claudia Seabrook. Biography Early life ]]Dominic Hutchinson was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England in 1944, the son of trade unionist Felix Hutchinson and his wife Florrie. He was raised in a working-class Catholic household, and he was family friends with local councillor Eddie Wells, while he was childhood friends with George "Geordie" Peacock and Mary Soulsby. Hutchinson was an avid soccer fan during his youth, and he was also politically active at a young age. In 1964, while an eighteen-year-old student at the University of Manchester, Hutchinson travelled to the United States to participate in the emerging Civil Rights movement in New Orleans, spending several months working as an organizer. Upon his return to England, he volunteered to work with Wells in canvassing for the Labour Party candidate Alan Paine ahead of the 15 October 1964 general election, much to his father's disapproval (his father was hostile to the Labour Party due to what he saw as its perceived corruption and empty promises). Hutchinson helped with handing out election flyers and going door-to-door to canvass, and he soon became so involved in political activism that his romantic relationship with Mary came to an end and Geordie moved to London due to Nicky's reconsidering forming a band with Geordie and Geordie's friend (and Mary's new lover) Tosker Cox. Work for Donohue ]]Soon, Hutchinson's outspokenness about politics led to Newcastle upon Tyne City Council leader Austin Donohue hiring Hutchinson as his public relations manager; against his father's wishes, Hutchinson decided against returning to university and decided to work for Donohue full-time. Hutchinson soon grew distrusting of Donohue's business dealings with the shady businessman John Edwards, and he also grew frustrated when he was told to help the progressive Tory Arthur Watson with his 1966 re-election campaign. Ultimately, he resigned after becoming disillusioned with the modern Labour Party, as Donohue told him that the future was in televised speeches and not in the street-corner speeches which Hutchinson loved. Anarchist phase Hutchinson, disillusioned by the Labour Party, became involved with the anarchist movement, which had first approached him a year earlier when Neil Boyce attempted to convince him to attend their meetings. Hutchinson began a relationship with Helen Windsor, a middle-class anarchist, and Helen's arrogance and condescension - as well as Nicky's newfound political views - drove away Mary and Tosker, who no longer recognized Nicky. Rather than help Eddie Wells with revealing Donohue's corruption, Hutchinson instead decided to travel to London to follow his dream of becoming a photographer. He and Helen became involved with an anarchist cell there, living in an apartment with them and photographic scenes of social injustice such as policemen using fire hoses to disperse homeless camps. In 1970, Hutchinson was assigned to commit a terrorist attack against the Ministry of Housing as part of a wave of terrorist attacks masterminded by the group's leader, Dave. However, detective Ron Conrad of the police's fraud squad tracked down Hutchinson to the apartment in order to interview him about John Edwards' corruption, but Hutchinson refused to give any details, insisting that he was merely Donohue's office boy. However, Helen grew paranoid about the police being able to locate the anarchist hideout, and she insisted that Hutchinson leave; Dave told him that he would have to leave town anyways, as he needed to stash a submachine gun for the cell. He stashed it under his bed in his family home, but it was discovered as Eddie Wells' wife was vacuuming, and his father furiously ordered him out of the house after Nicky argued with him about his anarchist ideals. Return to Labor By 1974, Hutchinson had returned to the Labour Party, and he was living in Tosker and Mary's former flat in the high-rise council estate which Donohue and Edwards had built. He ran a radical magazine while working at a sausage factory, and, during the Three-Day Week electricity controls implemented by Prime Minister Edward Heath, Hutchinson attempted to organize the council flats' residents into a rent strike. 1979 general election In 1979, Hutchinson decided to challenge the incumbent Labour MP for Tyne Bridge West, Alan Paine, in the Labour primary ahead of the 3 May 1979 general election. Hutchinson campaigned on the promise of demolishing the Willow Lane flats, which he associated with 30 years of Tammany Hall-style politics; however, he was a controversial candidate for his Trotskyist views. His Conservative media opponents labelled him "Red Nicky" for his membership in Militant and accused him of being a homosexual, and they also accused him of supporting IRA policy when he said that he supported a united Ireland and called him a hypocrite for opposing terrorism, as his former girlfriend Helen Windsor had been sentenced to 12 years in prison for taking part in anarchist bombings nine years earlier. After Seabrook's public relations manager Colin Butler had his agents plaster thousands of "Support the IRA" posters with Hutchinson's face on them across the city, Hutchinson accepted defeat and decided to leave politics behind to become a photographer. Photography Over the next few years, Hutchinson became a professional photographer, travelling to El Salvador to cover government atrocities during the Salvadoran Civil War. In 1984, he returned to England to cover the Miners' strike of 1984-85, and he rekindled his old relationship with a recently-divorced Mary. He married her in December 1984, and they had a happy marriage for three years. However, by 1987, Hutchinson began to feel conflicted as his father, afflicted with Alzheimer's, called him useless, and he also had an affair with a student in London, Alice McDonald, who was writing a dissertation on his work. Nicky came to self-loathe after discovering that his friend Geordie had become a mentally-unstable homeless man in London, and, when Mary discovered his infidelities, Nicky walked out on her, and he also failed to rekindle his relationship with Alice. Ultimately, Nicky and Mary agreed to separate, and Nicky lived in Italy for the next several years. Return to Newcastle In 1995, Hutchinson returned to Newcastle to attend his mother's funeral. He ran into Mary's son Anthony Cox at a bar, where Cox angrily threatened to break Hutchinson's neck if he hurt his mother again. However, Hutchinson went on to call Mary, and they agreed to meet each other at the opening night of Tosker's floating casino, "Terry's Bar", a day later. Nicky decided to stay in Newcastle to help take care of his father, who was afflicted by Alzheimer's disease, and, after the funeral was over, he convinced Soulsby to have lunch with him later that day, rekindling their old relationship and getting back together. Gallery Nicky Hutchinson.png|Hutchinson in 1964 Support the IRA poster.png|A 1979 Conservative Party poster accusing Hutchinson of supporting the IRA Category:1944 births Category:British politicians Category:British Category:Politicians Category:English Category:Catholics Category:Agnostics Category:Converts to agnosticism from Catholicism Category:Labour Party members Category:British socialists Category:Socialists Category:British anarchists Category:Anarchists Category:Journalists Category:Activists Category:Artists Category:British communists Category:Communists